The Zone
by Broadwaylover5300
Summary: Darla spends an evening watching TV with Mikey at his house. Darla-centric, Darla/Mikey!


**Hi! First of all, I promise that the next installment in my iPod challenge will be posted tomorrow night!**

**Next, this combines two of my biggest geeky passions: Hairspray and The Twilight Zone! Having said that, I must say that there's an anachronism in here: the narration that I say opens the episode does not, in fact, open the episode in question here, but it's my favorite narration of all of the narrations, and I had to use it!**

**I have to say that this is rather short, but hopefully it's still good!**

**Finally, this one-shot is dedicated to the memory of Rod Serling and Telly Savalas (both AMAZING guys), without either of whom this fic could not be possible!**

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

Even though the room was extraordinarily hot, Darla couldn't help but shudder as the calm, familiar and yet cold and ominous voice of Rod Serling filled the small living room of Mikey's house. The Twilight Zone was not a show that Darla ordinarily watched. She, being a girl's girl and proud of it, would not be caught dead watching something like The Twilight Zone, not when there were things like Another World on TV. However, Mikey had, much to Darla's surprise, asked her if she had wanted to come to his house and watch some TV and have some popcorn, and although Mikey had stated that he would be willing to watch anything that Darla wanted to watch, Darla had sensed that there was something that Mikey had really wanted to watch, and she, being the pushover she was, had told Mikey that she wanted to watch whatever he wanted to watch. Mikey, with obvious joy in his face, had then switched the station over to CBS and The Twilight Zone.

Mikey looked at Darla, who was sitting to his right. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Darla said, hoping that the sound of her voice matched the words that she was saying.

"Okay," Mikey said as he turned his eyes back to the TV.

Darla followed Mikey's eyes to the screen as a suburban living room faded into view. A well-built bald man sat at a desk, reading over some papers or something. Mikey had told her that his name was Telly Savalas and that he had been in movies such as Cape Fear and Birdman of Alcatraz, but Darla, priding herself on not knowing about such things, stated that she did not know this Savalas actor and that she was sure that he would not get anywhere in the entertainment business.

However, it did not take Darla too long to get absorbed in the show. She watched as the husband, played by Savalas, and his wife brought home a new doll for the daughter. Savalas, being the stepfather, played the old stepparent cliché card of not caring about the child and stating that the daughter did not need another doll. The daughter ran crying to her room, and, just as Darla was convinced that this was going to be nothing but a domestic drama, that was when Savalas turned the key that made the doll talk and the doll told him, "My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you."

Although it hadn't been a particularly threatening statement, Darla still felt cold chills run down her spine. Deep down, Darla had a feeling in her gut that that sweet voice, that voice that sounded so innocent and childlike, would soon be a voice that would be providing great fear to her before the half-hour was up.

As the show progressed, Darla got more and more frightened as Savalas' character tried various methods with which to get rid of the doll, such as burning it, taking it out in the street and abandoning it and squeezing its head in a vise, among sundry other methods. However, the doll kept coming back, without a scratch on it, and every time she returned, the threats would get more and more serious to the point that she was threatening Savalas' life.

The half-hour was almost up. Darla knew that the story would be winding down soon, and Darla had seen what the inevitable conclusion to the story had to be as she had gotten further and further into the episode. When Savalas got up in the middle of the night to investigate a strange noise out in the hall, Darla covered her eyes, knowing that the end was near and having a fear to see it, but still leaving a crack in her fingers through which to see, having the quality of, while fearing the unknown, having the morbid curiosity of the unknown at the same time.

Mikey whispered in her ear, "Darla, you're gonna miss it!"

Darla, not wanting to look afraid, uncovered her eyes, just as Savalas tripped over the doll, sending him into a deadly fall down the stairs. Darla screamed and grabbed Mikey's hand involuntarily.

Mikey smiled at her. "Covering your eyes just made it worse," he said. "You know, the people who cover their eyes during the scary parts? They're not getting the whole picture. You've always gotta keep your eyes open, both when you're watching something and in real life. You might miss the best parts." Mikey smiled bigger and squeezed Darla's hand tighter. "And besides, you know you've always got me here to protect you."

Darla smiled as she looked into Mikey's warm eyes. She knew he was right, and as long as he was around, she would never have anything to fear.


End file.
